


reach up to me (if you even can)

by guiltylights



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I WANTED TO WRITE IT and nothing can stop me, Post-Enies Lobby Arc, Pre-Thriller Bark Arc, Pre-Time Skip, can you imagine how Ace would've reacted to Luffy's tiny form after Gear Third, he would've started making fun of Luffy that's what, it's canon compliant if you're generous with timelines, it's literally just that, oh Ace also flings Luffy into the air, so that's that too, there is nothing else to this fic, this is a fic about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 12:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20601137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guiltylights/pseuds/guiltylights
Summary: And when Luffy’s arms retracted back to himself and started shrinking, air hissing every which way, Ace assumed it was because Luffy was going to try another method and thus took the opportunity to dive straight into his little brother’s space in this moment of vulnerability to knock him out with one clean punch—only to skid straight to a stop as the steam cleared and Ace came face to face with a small Luffy staring belligerently right up at him with his little head only barely reaching past Ace’sknees.





	reach up to me (if you even can)

**Author's Note:**

> [Time started: 9th September 19, 11.53am;– ] 
> 
> This fic might not be canon because while it IS set post-Enies Lobby when Luffy COULD and STILL MIGHT meet up with Ace, Ace is said to have found Blackbeard post-Enies Lobby. I assumed that there was enough time in between post-Enies Lobby and Ace’s fight with Blackbeard to squeeze this in, but this could be a false premise, because I don’t remember precisely when Ace fought Blackbeard anymore. Oh well. Fanfiction is about exploring possibilities right? Let’s roll with it.

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It’s been like, five minutes, and Ace is still cackling.

To give him credit, he’s been sincerely trying since like three minutes ago to stop laughing, but every time he wipes the tears from his eyes and glances down to the object of humour in question in front of him, he cracks up all over again. Well, object may be a bit of a mean statement. Because the object is not an _object, _it’s actually a person, and it’s actually not just any person, it’s his brother.

Or some semblance of it.

In front of Ace, a tiny Luffy stomps his foot and yells, ‘stop laughing!’ while looking the most petulant Ace has seen him since they had been kids, and Ace howls with laughter again.

Ace kind of still thinks this might be some sort of extended practical joke pulled on him by his brother and his crewmates, because how could this possibly be his brother? He’s just so… _small. _

The situation here, is that while cruising along the Grand Line as part of his efforts to find Blackbeard, Ace managed to run into Luffy’s ship. He hadn’t recognised it at first, with it being a different ship and all (the last time he’d seen Luffy, he had been on a boat with a sheep’s head, alright, not some metal lion thing), but there was no mistaking the Jolly Roger with the emblematic straw hat. And no matter where he was and what he was doing, Ace would never pass up a chance to see his little brother again, and so he had parked his striker right underneath the side-railings, jumped up, and yelled his brother’s name. Luffy had been ecstatic at the impromptu reunion.

However, because they’re pirates and because they’re also brothers who raised themselves fighting bears and alligators in jungles, their friendly reunion quickly turned itself towards becoming a friendly reunion fighting match. Because it has been _‘so long!’_, as Luffy had put it, ‘_since we really fought each other! And you know what, I bet I can really beat you now, I’ve gotten a lot stronger since Alabasta__—__’_ And well, Ace may be older and wiser now and less prone to explosive temper-induced bad decisions as compared to when he was a kid, but he’s still a big brother and big brothers never pass up the opportunity to absolutely _destroy _their little brothers in competitions and prove them wrong, so Ace gladly accepted.

The fight got a little heated, as anything between them always did (they never did pull their punches with each other—Ace knew Luffy would be mad if Ace tried going easy on him, and well, Ace doubts Luffy even _understands _the concept of ‘not giving your all’), so much so that the cyborg shipwright on the ship had thrown his hands up and gave up on fixing the ship as they damaged it, yelling at them that ‘if you guys actually put holes in this ship, I’m throwing you into the water myself!’. (They were trying to be careful, _honest.) _Halfway through, Luffy, frustrated that his attacks weren’t landing the way he clearly wanted them to, shouted ‘Gear Third!’, and well, _that _was certainly something new. As Ace watched, fascinated, Luffy inhaled a large gust of air and blew into his fist, and in response his arms started swelling into an incredible size, stretching like a balloon. His little brother has always been endlessly creative with how to use his Devil Fruit. Luffy’s hands easily became three times the size of his body, after which—after which Ace mostly concentrated on not getting his face smashed into the deck. 

But despite Luffy’s best efforts Ace is _smarter _and _faster _and _stronger _than him (of course he is), and so Ace managed to evade every one of Luffy’s giant attacks. And when Luffy’s arms retracted back to himself and started shrinking, air hissing every which way, Ace assumed it was because Luffy was going to try another method and thus took the opportunity to dive straight into his little brother’s space in this moment of vulnerability to knock him out with one clean punch_—_only to skid straight to a stop as the steam cleared and Ace came face to face with a small Luffy staring belligerently right up at him with his little head only barely reaching past Ace’s _knees. _

And Ace has been laughing since.

‘Oh my god,’ he says, wiping the tears again from his eyes, ‘this is the best day of my life.’

‘Fight me!’ Luffy says loudly, stomping his feet again and waving his arms about, and it is a very adorable sight, if not also incredibly hysterical. His voice is also pitched higher in this state. Aw. ‘I can still fight! I haven’t lost yet! C’mere, Ace!’

‘Sorry, little brother,’ Ace says, grinning, ‘but if you can’t even reach my face with those punches of yours, the fight is off.’

‘No!’

Ace cackles again, but also stoops to pick up his little brother (emphasis on the _little_) from under the armpits to sling him over his shoulder like a sack of rice. Luffy flails at this undignified method, and his hands slap Ace’s shoulder blades, but Ace is decidedly unperturbed.

Ace looks over to Luffy’s crew, who had clustered themselves near the main mast when it was decided that the fight between Ace and Luffy was going to be a very real thing that was about to happen. (Ace was very amused when, far from attempting to dissuade Luffy from the idea, the crew had simply exchanged exasperated looks before shuffling themselves off to one side in order to be as far away as possible from the fallout. They’re smart, for that. It’s nigh impossible to tell Luffy not to do something once he’s made up his mind about it.) ‘Does this happen often?’ Ace asks.

The cook, the blond one with the curly eyebrow whom Ace remembered helping to light a cigarette for ages ago, shakes his head. ‘Not really. He only developed that technique a few islands back, so we’ve only seen it once or twice.’

‘Most of the time when it happens, we’re a bit busy trying to cover our asses in a fight, anyway, so we don’t really notice,’ the green-haired swordsman adds on, wryly. He’s covered in swathes of bandages, and had sat down immediately upon shifting from his original place from napping near the stairs. Ace doesn’t ask.

‘I’m quite glad we have the opportunity to see it now, though,’ a tall woman with straight black hair_—_Ace dimly remembers Luffy introducing her as Nico Robin_—_says with a smile. ‘Our captain is really quite adorable like this.’

A hand sprouts from the side of Ace’s bicep (Ace flinches, because _what?) _and pats little Luffy on his head.

‘I am not cute!’ Luffy protests, wriggling, and Nico Robin only laughs. Ace tightens his grip on his little brother so that he won’t fall off in his struggle. ‘This is gonna wear off soon anyway, and then I’ll be big again and then I can kick your ass, Ace!’

Ace sneers, ‘Try saying that again when you actually come up to higher than my hip, squirt,’ before he gets an idea.

Lifting his little brother from his shoulders, Ace holds his little brother up in front of him to smirk at him for only a moment (Luffy tilts his head curiously in response), before Ace bends his knees, flexes his arms, and straight up just _hurls _his little brother into the air.

‘Holy _shit—’ _The long-nosed sniper on his little brother’s crew swears, scrambling to his feet.

Luffy’s long shriek of terror gradually grows fainter as he sails higher up into the sky. Ace whistles, putting a hand up to shield his eyes as he peers into the sun. ‘I have a better throwing arm than I thought,’ he says.

_‘Why _the _hell _did you just do that?!’ The orange-haired navigator shrieks, looking like she is three steps away from punching him herself, second division commander of the Whitebeard pirates or no. Next to her, the tiny reindeer doctor of the crew is blabbering frantically, looking close to tears as he peers up into the sky for Luffy’s figure. Ace feels a little bad. It’s not nice to bully small children or animals, after all, and Luffy’s doctor was arguably both of them at once. Ace flaps a hand in their direction in reassurance.

‘Relax, he won’t die from it. Plus, he’ll like it, just you wait and see.’

Sure enough, as Luffy plummets down from where he had been, the sounds that trail from his mouth are not screams of fear, but rather shrieks of laughter. Ace catches Luffy easily as he comes hurtling down, and Luffy pops his head up only to say, ‘again! Again! Again!’

At the mast, the long-nosed sniper and the tiny reindeer doctor collapse. ‘Man, I thought I was gonna die,’ Usopp moans, clutching his chest, and the doctor nods in agreement.

‘Give us a little warning before you do that next time!’ The navigator chastises Ace and Luffy both, waving a fist, but it’s not a threat, not really, considering how there’s a fond smile upticking the corners of her mouth as she watches her captain laugh in Ace’s arms. Ace’s glad his little brother’s surrounded himself with a crew like this, that seems to love him as fiercely as Ace knows his little brother loves them.

‘Sorry,’ Ace laughs, ‘but no more surprises, promise.’ He turns his eyes back to his little brother. ‘Want to go again?’

‘Yeah!’

‘Well, I guess the fight is called off now,’ Nico Robin comments, amused, as Ace crouches and prepares to fling Luffy into the sky again.

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The seventh time Ace flings Luffy into the air though, when his little brother comes back down he is decidedly not so little anymore.

_‘Aaaaace!’ _He yells, stretching the syllables out as he plummets through the air back towards Ace in all his gangly seventeen-year-old self, and Ace swears.

‘_Shit—’ _

Luffy crashes straight into Ace and sends him straight through the deck, and the wood splinters along with it.

‘You’re fixing that!’ The cyborg shipwright yells from where he was patching holes high up in the mast, and Ace can only groan as Luffy laughs and laughs and laughs.

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**Author's Note:**

> After this most delightful little event Ace gets back into his striker while Luffy and his crew sail to Thriller Bark and then Sabaody, Ace finds Blackbeard, and well, we all know where the story goes after that :-) I love Ace so much WHY ODA 
> 
> This little fic wasn’t much at all but I just wanted to write an arbitrary cute little Ace and Luffy interaction! It’s chaotic, because of course it is, because they’re brothers who grew up fighting animals in a jungle. They’re never going to be sweet and tame. They’re going to be sweet but FERAL, and I’ll fight you on this. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you liked this, leave me kudos or comments, comments especially make my day :) I also have a [tumblr](http://guilty-lights.tumblr.com/), if you’d like to stop by! 
> 
> [Time ended: 11th September 19, 5:06pm;– ]


End file.
